


Behind the Sea

by ProtectRafeAdler



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, Nathan isn't really in it much, mermaid!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 18:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7398826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProtectRafeAdler/pseuds/ProtectRafeAdler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam is thrown overboard and away from his brother, what happens next isn't what he was expecting. Still, Sam can't complain about the hand he's been dealt.</p>
<p>There can never be enough merman!Rafe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Behind the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Heart Lost to Sea](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7144907) by [ChangeTheCircumstances](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangeTheCircumstances/pseuds/ChangeTheCircumstances). 



Sam was beginning to panic as more and more gunfire rained down on the ship, large splinters of wood being thrown in the ocean. Nathan was shouting as many orders as he could, the Avery firing back as fast as the crew could load the cannons. Many British soldiers had already boarded the ship, tearing through their crew faster than they should be. Sam was just focused on protecting his brother, engaging anybody who got too close in a fight. He had gained a few slashes up his arms as well as across his stomach and back from these sword fights. It was worth it as long as he protected his brother. More of the ship was going up in flames, the debris littering the water around them. Two of the masts were splintered, flames tearing down what was left. Sam knew it was unlikely that they would survive this. The floor beneath them rocked violently as the enemy ship fired another round of mortars at them, the ammunition shredding the wood of the deck. Sam was thrown with the force, water flooding his mouth and nose before he could register anything. The sheer force of the impact had his head spinning, black invading his vision. The water weighed him down, making it hard for Sam to move. The chaos of the battle made it difficult for him to tell which way was up, from beneath the waves, all he could see was wood and the bodies of his crewmates staining the water red. Sam struggled to break the surface of the water, everything pulling him down as everything was growing darker. The last thing he heard before blackness took over was the sound of Nathan shouting his name. 

Sam woke up with a start, hacking cough erupting from his body causing him to double over. It took him a few moments to remember what happened. The ship was attacked. He was fighting. Protecting Nathan. He was thrown overboard. He should be dead.

Why wasn’t he dead?

Sam finally took notice as to where he was, on the rocky surface the inside of a cave. There was water to the right of him but as far as Sam could tell the entrance to the cave was underwater. He had no idea how he could have got there. If the tide had somehow carried him through the cave system and to here, he should have been cut up by rocks.

A disturbance in the water next to him caught Sam’s attention yet he couldn’t see anything when he looked. Sam sighed, figuring that nearly drowning was causing him to hallucinate. Well, until he heard the noise again. This time, he caught a tail disappearing under the water. It was blood red, each scale shimmering in the limited light of the cave. It was also way too big to be a fish. Sam decided that this situation could only go two ways: one, he was hallucinating and he would eventually go crazy and die in this cave or two, whatever that thing was, it was going to eat him. Either way, he was certain that he was about to die.

Instead of his imminent death, he was met with the sight of a man, head popping out the water just enough so that only his eyes were visible. From what Sam could see, the man was younger than him by a few years, eyes expressing a kind of fearful curiosity. As soon as the man noticed that Sam was looking at him, his eyes widened and he disappeared below the water again.

Sam scrambled to the edge of the water, trying to see through the dark depths but to no avail. Maybe he was hallucinating. First a tail and now a man? He really was losing it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he made the connection to merfolk, the bedtime stories of his mother still living with him. Still, they were just stories. Merfolk were not real.

Except.

Except there the man was again, exposed from the collarbones upwards this time. He kept dipping down lower into the water every so often to get the waves to flow over his gills. His gills. The man had fucking gills. Sam was definitely going crazy. But this was so, so real and maybe Sam had to accept that sometimes stories are more than stories.

“Um? Hello?” Sam had no idea what he was supposed to do. The merman seemed to shrink back as Sam spoke so he made the effort to speak softer, trying to ignore the roughness that came with swallowing too much salt water. “Can you understand me? Can you even speak?”

The merman swam up to Sam slowly, looking like he was ready to bolt at the slightest warning. Hesitantly the merman held out a hand to Sam, touching his arm before Sam blinked and he was gone. It was odd though, the moment the merman’s skin made contact with Sam, he felt like he should stay, that the merman would come back. He wasn’t sure how it worked but perhaps touch was their way of communicating?

True to the feeling, the merman was back only a few minutes later. This time a pearl hung around his neck, settled against the base of his throat. The merman seemed a bit more confident now, settling closer to Sam than before.

“Was it you that saved me?” Sam asked. The merman came closer and soon Sam felt his hands on his leg.

“I did.” It sounded like the voice was in Sam’s head. Telepathic communication that requires touch. Huh. “Human’s cannot survive in water, correct? I brought you to the nearest land I knew.”

“Thank you.” The merman only nodded. “My name is Sam.”

“Rafe.”


End file.
